“Lady with the green eyes, I know now what it is you possess, a secret your old confederates do not know, a secret they wish to tear from you and which you keep fiercely. That secret shall belong to me some day because secrets are my strong point; and I shall learn that one, even as I shall scatter the darkness in which you hide yourself, mysterious and fascinating Aurelie.” This apostrophe satisfied Ralph, and he went to sleep to think no more of the disturbing enigma of the girl with the green eyes. The little town of Luz and the neighboring town of Saint-Sauveur are famous for their baths which at that season few invalids were taking. Ralph chose a hotel that was nearly empty and gave out that he was a student of botany and mineralogy. He devoted all the afternoon to a careful examination of the country. A very bad and narrow road, nearly a mile in length and steep, led up to the Maison des Soeurs Sainte-Marie, an old convent which had been turned into a boarding-school. In the midst of a bare and rocky stretch of ground the buildings and gardens of the convent stretch along the point of a projecting cliff, on terraces which rise above one another and support strong walls, along the foot of which Sainte-Marie’s brook formerly boiled. To-day, along this part of its course, it runs under the earth. A pine forest covers the other slope, traversed by two roads, that cross one another, for the use of the wood-cutters. There are grottoes and rocks of strange shapes to which excursions run on Sundays. It was on this side that Ralph kept watch. It was a deserted spot, the silence of which was only broken by the sound of the axes of the wood-cutters in the distance. From the point he had chosen he looked over the smooth lawns of the garden and an avenue of carefully clipped limes which sheltered the path along which the boarders took the air. In the course of a few days he knew the customs of the convent and the hours of recreation. After the mid-day meal the walk which ran along the edge of the gorge was reserved for the big girls. It was not till the fourth day that the girl with the green eyes—doubtless she had been so worn out by what she had gone through that it had kept her indoors—appeared on this walk. Thereupon each of the big girls seemed to have no other object in life but to monopolize her, and they quarrelled jealously with one another for the privilege of enjoying her society. Ralph perceived at once that she was changed like a child who is recovering from an illness and expands in the sunshine and keen air of the mountains. She flitted about among her young companions, dressed as they were, alert and full of life, charming with all, the leader of their games, and enjoyed herself so thoroughly that her silvery laugh was forever echoing among the walls of the gorge.